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Poker is a fine activity blending the mental focus and determination required of a world class athlete with beer and nachos. Sometimes, there’s cheese fries.

Okay, in all seriousness, I love real money poker and have spent a lot of hours analyzing how to get the best results at the table as possible. Then, one day, I came to a shocking realization. My best friend doesn’t know how to play poker.

Despite watching poker on television with me, listening to me talk about poker strategy, watching YouTube videos on bad beats, etc., he still had no real idea how to play. Thus, I decided I would teach him how to play this fine game in the hopes I could bring him with me for some tournament play at the casinos.

I’m now happy to report that within two weeks of our lessons, he’s sitting at the final table at the WPT and ready to win it all. But it’s on the app… On his phone… At the “grandma’s house” level of difficulty.

With that said, even spending a few hours teaching him to play gave me some insights into how the game can be taught. So, if you have a friend or family member who just happens to need to learn how to play, I’ve got some tips for you.

Most of them are basic, but sadly, they’re not all things I thought of before I started teaching the game. Hopefully, these seven tips to teach someone how to play real money poker will help you.

1 – Don’t Throw Too Much at Them Too Fast

I taught my best friend how to play poker because I love the game of poker. And I read about poker because I love the game. I improve my game constantly because it’s one of my favorite pastimes.

I also have a glossary of poker terms that I can drop into everyday conversation. I yell at players on TV when they bet aggressively without position. I tear up when a player folds top pair, thinking their opponent had the better hand.

My best friend does none of that. I’m not saying he won’t one day, but I when I taught him poker, I made the conscious decision to not throw a bunch of terms and information at him immediately.

And I don’t do think because I don’t think he can handle it. You can still play real money poker without knowing position or the odds of winning with pocket twos in head-to-head matches. But you can’t play poker if you don’t know to keep your two cards face down or that you make the best hand of five in a game of Texas Holdem.

Therefore, stick with the most important details first and add the rest of the stuff as they pick up the basics.

2 – Pick One Type of Poker (Texas Holdem Is a Good Choice)

When I started teaching my friend poker, we talked about which game he wanted to learn. We settled on Texas Holdem because of its popularity.

If I had tried to teach him Holdem vs. Draw vs. Stud Poker and discussed the rules of each, I would have been violating rule #1. Plus, once you learn one type of poker, it’s not very difficult to pick up the other types.

3 – Start With the Hand Chart

Because my best friend knew the basics of real money poker (he was going to get cards dealt to him and other cards were common to the table), we moved to the hand chart. This chart shows the relative strengths of hands. For example, charts will state that one pair is weaker than two pair, three of a kind is weaker than a flush, etc.

My mistake here was not printing out a chart for him to actually study. There were a few things I should have cleared up about straights and flushes (and how flushes and straight flushes are different) that I wish I had explained better.

To that end, since the point of poker is making the best hand, it makes sense to go over the various hands and explain that the strength of a given hand is based on the probability that you will get it. Those little things will make the game a lot easier to grasp.

4 – Talk About When to Bet

All real money poker games are broken up into phases, some of which give players the opportunity to place wagers. Make these times very clear to your new protégé because betting is how they are going to make money and earn chips.

Therefore, there shouldn’t be any surprises when it comes to how and when betting takes place.

Also, it’s important that they know who bets first and last. This will segue into some benefits of bluffing, re-raising pre-flop, etc. But if you go too far into that, you violate rule #1. No, the goal of establishing order is just to avoid making faux pas at the table and to give them an idea of how the action will work.

5 – Discuss Betting Options

My friend actually asked me about when to bet. And after we had listed out the phases of a Texas Holdem game, we went on to the various betting options one has.

I explained to him that in Texas Holdem, you have one of six options when it’s your turn to decide.

1. Bet
2. Call
3. Raise
4. Re-raise
5. Fold
6. Check

It was enough to give a quick description of each and briefly talk about when to use each one (emphasis on the word “briefly”). Mainly, I told him that to raise meant he had to be sure of his cards. To re-raise meant he had to be very sure of his cards.

We also talked briefly about checking, and the message it sends to the table. But I didn’t talk about it to the point where it broke rule #1.

Lastly, I also set the stage early on that folding is oftentimes your best move. That actually leads us into the next thing you want to convince your student.

6 – Convince Your Protégé That Folding Is Okay

For the beginner (especially ego-driven ones like me), folding feels a lot like quitting. It feels like giving up just because not everything is perfect.

Of course, the reality of the situation is that folding is a defensive move designed to keep you in the game so that you find your perfect moment and strike. This is a lesson that new poker players need to hear out and learn quickly.

Sure, it’s kind of fun not to teach them this and have them play a few terrible hands at first until they learn, but that’s good for building up your own ego and not much more. Be a good teacher and let your student know that it’s okay to fold when it feels right.

Also, if you think your student is ready, let them know when their opponents might fold. It’s good for them to realize that their opponents likely have a high card in the hold (or a pair) or else they likely would not have stayed in.

However, that might be a little much to learn at this point.

7 – There’s No Substitute for Experience

Once I explained the basics of the game, it was time to grab a deck of cards and start playing. I was kind of looking forward to playing since my friend had so many tells that it was almost unfair, but we were out at a restaurant and neither of us had a deck.

We did have our phones, though. I didn’t want him to start playing live players and get discouraged, so we found an offline real money poker app and started playing. I played a few hands to get a feel for the controls and then started watching him play.

I noticed immediately that he took my thoughts on folding a little too seriously and nearly mucked a few hands that were pretty good. So, I talked him through why I would keep those hands and over time, he started to get better. Plus, we had fun, especially when I got to introduce the concept of the bad beat.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, playing real money poker is supposed to be fun. Teaching poker to someone else is an opportunity to share a thing you enjoy with someone whose company you enjoy as well.

Things to Remember:

Really, as you embark on teaching someone poker, the most important thing to keep in mind is rule #1: Don’t overwhelm the student. Throw concepts at them at their own pace, and if they start to look confused, just move on.

Also, while not mentioned above, another key point is to not be a jerk. You’re probably pretty good at real money poker, but your student won’t be. Work with them, and be patient. Coach them, and don’t get frustrated. And it’s just poker. Getting upset is not worth it!

With that, good luck, poker teacher! You are passing along a great set of skills and enabling someone to have a great time along the way.

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Ever since winning the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event and helping ignite the poker 'boom,' Chris Moneymaker has proven a terrific ambassador for the game, and a decade-and-a-half later continues to serve in that role.

PokerNews caught up with Moneymaker this week at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure not long after he had spent some time at the Atlantis introducing the game to a group of players brand new to poker.

In the video below, Moneymaker talks with our Sasha Salinger about different ways experienced players can teach poker to beginners. The fact that he regularly teaches the game in poker camps and in other contexts has helped him come up with strategies for helping those utterly new to the game not only learn the rules, but basic strategy as well.

Teach Me How To Play Poker App

As Moneymaker suggests, starting out by explaining the basics (blinds and antes, the order of play, etc.) and then playing 'fake hands' face up is a great way to begin.

'Then we turn the cards face down and they see the difference,' he explains. 'They see how hard it is' to know whether or not to play or fold certain hands, and thus start to recognize some of the strategy involved with not just playing your own hand but thinking about what others might have.

Overcoming that initial intimidation is a big step, and so helping a beginner through that stage can be key, setting the person up for a lifetime of fun and further learning at the tables.

Easy Poker Rules For Kids

'I always look at is as... once you start playing this game, you're probably going to be playing it for a long time,' he says.

'It's not like this is some bad thing to learn or something hard thing to learn — it's actually a very easy game to learn. It's hard to master, but I can teach someone how to play in a couple of hours and they can go sit down and do okay.'

Learning How To Play Poker

Moneymaker offers a few further suggestions, including having players start out with online poker as a less formidable environment in which to learn rules and basic strategy. Take a look:

Learning Poker Games

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